On page two of the Taipei Times there are a few more numbers.
Here’s one I thought might come in handy:
Police (English) 02-2556-6007
Luckily I haven’t needed to use it.
Probably stating the obvious, but: the emergency numbers alone are useless if you can’t explain where you are. As I learned yesterday, simply giving your address might not be enough, so it’s better to learn how to give directions to the emergency services.
Not sure if the ambulance had a GPS or not, the place was a bit outside of Taichung and “rather new” (3-5 years), so it might not be on any navigation system’s maps. Actually they almost found it by themselves, it was just the last turn which they didn’t make. Anyhow, they were surprisingly fast, though the way back to the hospital was a bit strange (IMHO).
Thanks, everything went quite smooth and the patient will recover completely in a few weeks. Nothing happened to me, I was just the one to get help.
How are the emergency services’ people in responding to directions such as “the northeast corner of [an intersection]” or “the southwest corner of [some crossroads]” … etc. Does anyone have experience in giving directions this way ???
Since the Chinese invented the compass, I would assume that using the points of the compass to identify one’s current position would be the preferred method . . . . . . . .
I found that all emergency numbers did not include a foreign service hotline they lauched few(2, I think) year ago.
That is a toll free hotline: 0800-024-111, which literally solve most of your problems. I got a drivers’ license problem and did not know where to go. This hotline solve it. Plus, I heard lots of friends using this hotline as a communication tool to taxi driver.
Most important of all, it is FREE, and 24-hour services. You can call from home, or even mobile.
That won’t work. If you can’t raise a network, you can’t dial anything . While 112 is the international standard emergency number, I don’t believe it works in Taiwan.
Receiption is bad or totally lost? If receiption of your home network is lost the phone (not all, just some models) may give this message because you could use other networks to make an emergency call, but if there is a network or not the phone wouldn’t know until you actually try to make that emergency call. BFM is therefore right, no network, no call.
The Foreign Affairs (Police) section of that page is all obsolete starting on Tuesday when the National Immigration Agency takes over those responsibilities.
Not necessarily emergency, but Taipei City has ombudsmen at this number who can redirect you as needed (including to the appropriate emergency number), and they’ll take all kinds of complaints too – illegally parked vehicles, traffic lights out, sinkholes or giant potholes in the road and so on: 1999 then dial 0 for English. Very useful since 1999 is easy to remember.
For road problems you can also call 0800 523 888 directly.
113 for children, adolescents and women protection.
It provides 24-hour service by professional social workers to deal with cases of domestic violence, children abuse/ignorance and sexual assault/harassment.
